1844.] 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



3 



nounce that the Cata- 



J 



~7^c PWIPLIN begs to annou ^ 



^^"--^r^HcaUo^ addressed to WW 



ssPX. 



W*J „ a v be had. on a, 

 , and may hamsfl1 ^E 



'«^1^^ -^TTT^iRS OF PEARS. 



~ ^^l 1 ' fro Enounce that his Descnp- 



BIYERS. J ^ ^^t^Tsorne dictions for their . 

 tive Cttaiogoe of Pear. dau Conical 



C-^'^J^d'c^s are given, to i J***^ of Fruits 

 * 2*2 r^'ded a Supplement £o Catalog > of ^ ^ 



ft* !• *v*>en _♦ „ost-free, for ^ ■; & Ca> ard at 4, 



T 



some 



and Quenouille trees, 



ready for delivery, to 

 ,i^,,o nf Fruits. Ine 



»Wh 



sent, post 



Wj^Sa *° b ^^rd r cnrThV Catalogue of Pears ; is 

 S£ EErf*™* Covent ^Garten^ ntg receipt of a 



Sgs^^ Hert3 ' Jan ' 4 ' 



Cfjc ©atJener^ 



gATl-RDA} 



JANUARY 6, 1S44. 



r^vTTFuLLO WING WEEKS. 



f«. Ja "- 10 ; H^rti/ultural . . 8 p «• 

 «»w*' JaB ' 18 ?Linn«m • • • J '-*' 



"t.« 17 . MUroocopical . • 8 p.m. 



\Vew"**»* y » Jan " 17 



„, "~f Wa^^TcTses having been again 

 J^ct^U by the Horticultural Society, who 



have offered certain prizes for them at the Exhibitions I will require no such support ; both of them may have 

 next vear, it seems desirable to make a few remarks doors in the roof, 

 upon "them in addition to what has been stated on 



former occasions. 



Mr. Ward's pamphlet* contains, indeed, all the infor- 

 mation that can be given ; but it is in few hands, and 

 everybody does not understand the principles on which 

 his cases are constructed. Itis imagined by uninformed 

 persons that entire exclusion of air is the great object 

 which Mr. Wnrd sought to secure by his contrivance. 

 But we need hardly tell the reader who knows any- 

 thing of the atmosphere, that such an effect cannot be 

 attained by a Ward's apparatus : the air rinds its way 

 into every place not hermetically sealed, and such 

 contrivances as close- glazing, puttying, and so forth, 

 cannot exclude it. What iVJr. Ward sought to gain 

 ■was uniform moisture and an exclusion of soot ; and 

 these he effectually secured. It is the dryness of the 

 air that destroys plants in sitting-rooms and great 

 towns, and not impurities in the gaseous constituents 

 of the atmosphere, the importance of which has been 



By inclosing plants in tightly- 



sincularlv overrated. 



; 







Among those difficulties, 



glazed cases light is admitted, soot is excluded, and 

 any desired amount of moisture is securable. 



There are, however, some practical difficulties in 

 the way of growing plants in ciose moist cases, which 

 Amateurs unacquainted with the nature of plants are 

 unable to overcome, but which a sensible gardener, who 

 does not belong to the " drowsy" school, would easily 

 remove; and with a view to the accomplishment of this, 

 Ward's Cases were admitted to the Exhibitions of 

 the Horticultural Society. 



the principal is the adjustment of the amount of 

 moisture to which a plant is exposed in one of the 

 cases, to the surrounding heat and to its own proper 

 nature. Another is the prevention of dew upon 

 the inside of the glass, by which the interior 

 is often entirely hidden. These are practical diffi- 

 culties, that must exercise the ingenuity of cultivators. 

 Upon the former we can give no information, because 

 each species requires a special consideration. As to 

 the deposit of dew upon the glasses we may observe, 

 that since this is owing to the inside of the case being 

 colder than the air that surrounds it, the only course to 

 take is either to warm the internal air by some means, 

 or to open a door in the case for a short time ; and as 

 the latter is the most easy, and is quite efficient, it will 

 be. the more generally adopted. Opening the door 

 is an advantage rather than a disadvantage to the 

 plants, if not continued too long. 



The reason why these ingenious contrivances have 

 not been more generally adopted, is owing, we con- 

 ceive, partly to the difficulty of managing them and 

 partly to the Ward's cases which are sold in the shops 

 being remarkably ugly. The former difficulty will, we 

 trust be removed \v degrees, when gardeners turn 

 their attention seriously to it. In order to assist in 

 diminishing the opposition which arises out of the 

 inelegant appearance of the cases, we submit the 

 accompanying designs, which any ingenious workman 

 can readily execute either in brass, or bronze, or iron. 

 The shorter of the two must stand Jon legs, the other 



It is of no use now to ask, how many years 

 it takes to procure those Great Pines, in the 

 mere existence of which men would not believe: 

 it is of no use to inquire how much they cost; 

 it is idle to make calculations any longer as 

 to the average number of pounds of fruit which 

 a dozen square yards of Pine-soil will produce, or 

 to assert that 20 Pines, of 3 lbs. each, are just as 

 good as 10, of 6 lbs. — an argument worthy of a 

 market-gardener, and of no one else. The floor on 

 which such reasoners have been standing is knocked 

 from under them ; for Mr. Barnes, one of the most 

 successful, sensible, and experienced of modern gar- 

 deners, has publicly explained his mode of practice, 

 and shown, that with no more expense, space, or 

 trouble — on the contrary, with less of all, but with a 

 good deal more skill and common sense, all thoFe 

 incredibilities, which we have been blamed by the 

 stand-still gardeners for making public, are attainable. 

 He has shown, too, other thin us. He has not only* 

 exposed the folly of the doubters and speculators 

 and cavillers, of whom Ave have lately heard so much, 

 but he has completely confirmed the justice of our 

 assertions, that we are only on the eve of discover- 

 ing the true mode of Pine growing, and that in 

 the cultivation of the Pine we have a most striking 

 illustration at once of the value of charcoal, and of the 

 one-shift system, advocated by Mr. Wood. 



Although we do not feel ourselves at all called 

 upon to pay attention to the foolish distinction drawn 

 by uninformed persons between what they are pleased 

 to call theory and practice, yet, on this occasion, it 

 may be as well to remind them that Mr. Barnes, of 

 Bicton, is ? in the strictest sense of the word, a prac- 

 tical man — a very sensible one, no doubt ; but still, 

 such an intelligent practical man as you will find 

 many of, all over the country : not, indeed, one of 

 those practical men, who, as he says, M lie in bed half 

 the day, and walk about the other half with their 

 hands in their pockets " (p. 696) ; but a gardener full 



calling 

 his own 

 deficiencies, as all men of sense are, no trumpeter of 

 his own merits, great as they are, but hard-handed, 

 hard-headed, earnest, and industrious ; relying upon 

 his own resources, and not, like the countryman in the 

 fable, crying out to Jupiter to help him out of every 

 heavy road into which he may have driven his team. 

 In short, he is not one of those fine gentlemen who> 

 lay the blame on their men, or anything rather than 

 themselves, for the mischief that arises out of their 

 own incompetence, but exactly what a good gardener 

 always is. Such is the man whose statements regard- 

 ing the Pine-apple we are now about to quote in 

 favour of our own views of what the management 

 ought to be. The account to which we refer is in the 

 "Gardeners' Magazine," just published, and of 

 which we regret to announce the termination. The 

 more essential points appear to be the following, in 

 addition to what good Pine-growers already practise. 



There is no disrooting. How men could have ever 

 fancied that the best way of making a Pine plant grow 

 is to cut off its roots, it does, pass our skill to 



hands in their pockets" [p. oyo; ; diu a garuem 



I Of zeal and knowledge, who has followed his c 



for more than 30 years, self-taught, aware of hi 





* On the Growth of Plants in closely-glazed Cases, by N.B. 

 Ward, 3vo M 1842, 



imagine. Mr. Barnes most properly exposes that folljv 

 "I know it is considered by many practical men 

 that the Pine-plant is an annual-rooted plant, and that 

 it requires disrooting in the spring; practice has con- 

 vinced me of the contrary ; but unnatural treatment 

 too often causes it to lose its roots, not only annually, 

 but several times in the course of the year. It is stated 

 by others that it is impossible to grow or cultivate this 

 beautiful fruit in some localities, for the want of proper 

 soil ; I am perfectly convinced that the obstacle is not 

 so much the waut of proper soil as the want of know- 

 ing what proper soil is, how to^get it healthy, and to 

 keep it healthy." In fact disrooting a plant is like 

 drawing a man's teeth in order to make him eat. 



So':t, again, has been looked upon as a great consider- 

 ation. The French swear by peat, the English by loam 

 the South Americans by sea-sand. But, says Mr. Barnes 

 — " Practice and observation have taught me that the 

 Pine-apple may be produced to very superior perfec- 

 tion in any locality, and that any soil that will pro- 

 duce tolerably good Wheat will grow good Pine-apples, 

 and so will soil that will produce nothing but stunted 

 Furze-bushes, Brambles, and short starved Heath, &c. 

 The defect is in the means employed in getting it into 

 a healthy pure condition, and keeping it so with heat, 

 lighr, and water, all pure and acting together. _ We 

 have no bad soil in this country ; it is only our igno- 

 rance makes us think so. How often have 1 heard 

 men remark, on observing plants, fruit, tVc, at a 

 neighbour's superior to their own, * Had I but your 

 convenience, soils, &c, 1 could produce a£ good ;' — 

 how familiar these remarks are to me! Itis one 

 step, certainly, to get the soil where your neighbour 

 etshis from ; but without making use of it in a proper 

 condition there will still be disappointments. My own 

 idea is, that the soil is the stomach of the plant, and 

 I without the stomach is in a pure and healthy tonui- 



